Monday, August 15, 2011

New York City

By the gate at the airport, waiting to board. We've been here since four thirty am. I got a little bit of sleep in the van tonight, since I squeezed in between the seats down on the floor and could stretch out underneath Jon's legs. It's the first time I've slept like that in a van for a long time and I guess it's an age thing, but it was pretty fucking scary lying there, trusting that Nico and his friend Daniel would take care of business and not fall asleep. It didn't use to be like that, but like I said, it's probably an age thing. I'm certainly more in touch with my mortality now than I was ten years ago.
We had no problems checking in for at flights at least. I can't describe the relief of seeing that seat number on my boarding pass. Now it's just the other side of the pond to worry about. We had some really good breakfast once we sat down, a ecological cheese baguette with honey mustard. This airport certainly pisses all over Bremen's poor, dog shit stained excuse for a terminal.

I also scored a sleeping pill from Johan, so my hopes for getting some kip on the flight has increased. If I can get five hours or so I think I'll be ok. Right now I'm feeling fucking exhausted!

We've been doing our best to pass the time for the last four hours... The highlight of this morning so far has been the massage chair that gave my body a severe rub down for five minutes, for only two Euros. I'd been to the toilet and when I came out I found the three guys each sat in these massage chairs. There were only three so I had to wait, but it was worth it for the entertainment Johan and Jon provided whilst I stood around waiting my turn. Jon was getting it on with the nearest chair, laughing orgasmically as it worked it's magic. Andy was sat in the farthest chair silently enjoying his treatment and Johan was on his knees in the middle chair, looking angrily into the coin slot and prodding and poking it, trying to get his coins back. When that didn't work he turned to punching it, but still nothing. He did this for almost five minutes, and the chair didn't make a move. And he didn't get his money back. Jon and Andy sat there totally oblivious to his huffing and puffing, whilst I looked on giggling to myself.

It's now eight thirty four am. We're going to go to the gate to board in around half an hour, although the flight takes off at ten forty five. My plan is to wait until after dinner and then pop that fucking pill and hope it takes me into a much needed, deep sleep.

Aaron has just texted Jon saying that all our gear and a load of beer awaits us at his place. Apparently Jon's hole-less bowling ball has arrived there too? I have no fucking idea but Jon seems to be chuffed.

I have no idea how I am going to feel tonight, I don't think drinking beer before the show will do me much good though. Hope these sleeping pills work..

Later:

The pill worked a treat! I don't think I've ever slept so long on a flight before. I slept just after dinner on the plane, which was surprisingly good, and I got the vegetarian food I'd ordered without any hassle, and I woke up just as we were coming over the Canadian border into the States. Perfect. I feel really good now and I'm looking forward to tonight's show.

We're at the club now. It's a pretty cool place. The bar is really slick and it's painted black, the club is called St. Vitus Bar after all. Looks like they have some pretty nice beer on tap and it's nicely air conditioned, which is a welcome treat considering the humidity outside on the streets of New York City.

We've just been hanging out at Aaron's place for a while. It was like Christmas morning at his place! We had a load of boxes stacked up against the wall in his living room. It's incredibly kind of him to have let us use his place like that. I'm really happy with my new guitar, it looks great! I'm sure it's going to work out just fine. It's great to see Matt again too. I'm happy that he's driving us on this tour, he's a great guy to have around and he always has your back. It was a welcome sight to see him waiting for us when we came through the arrivals hall at Newark. Getting through customs was no hassle at all, although the cue was a joke. I must have stood there for well over an hour, awaiting my turn. And then when my turn came around, I was there for all of three minutes. I had a friendly cop, who looked like he was at the tail end of a long shift. He barely looked at me, just a couple of questions and then he waved me through.

Upon meeting up with Johan, Andy and Matt, I picked up some coffee and doughnuts from a Crispy Creeme stand. Ah, god bless America indeed!

I sat up front with Matt in the van as we drove through the streets of New York towards Aaron's place. I'm looking forward to seeing their new house in Richmond next week too. That day will be our only day off on the tour, and a fun day it will be too. We're going to be hanging out at the Best Friends Day Festival, drinking beer, swimming in the lake and watching some great bands like 7 Seconds, Baroness and Against Me! That's next weekend though. First things first, I'm looking forward to playing this show tonight. We're all loaded in now and just checking merch. Unfortunately Deathwish have sent us a box of the wrong cd's...instead of Victims stuff we have a box of Deafheaven records! Not much use to us..

Time to go in search of food soon.

Later still:

In the van now, driving back with our friends Greg and Meghan back to their place in Philadelphia. It should take around two hours, so hopefully we'll be there around three am. Still feeling pretty good. The rest of the guys are out for the count, but I'm holding up pretty well. The Greg and Meghan comedy act is keeping me amused as I sit in the back. I love those guys.

The show tonight went really well I think. All the equipment worked well, my guitar felt good and the set was tight. The sound on stage was pretty shit though, which was really the only struggle. All I could hear was myself and the faint tapping of Andy's drums. The poor sound didn't deter me from enjoying the show though. Fuck, I'm in New York City playing punk rock, what's not to enjoy? There was quite a good crowd in too, although I was a little worried when the first of the five band's on tonight's bill played to all of about eight people. By the time we went on though it had filled out pretty well. The crowd didn't move too much, it was after all nine pm. on a Saturday night in NYC, which for this city is really early, but they received us well all the same. Jon was in good form between songs. He's pretty chuffed about playing a show with Ringworm and Killing Time and gave them a couple of shout outs. One in particular made me laugh...”It's great to be here playing with a couple of legendary bands, but they've got some pretty big shoes to fill tonight.” He also mentioned that we'd played a city in west Belgium just last night, and then informed them that Belgium was a country in Europe.

Greg and Meghan turned up at the show literally just as we finished playing the set. Meghan was not amused. Apparently it took them five hours to get from Philly to New York by train! That's crazy, it only took us seven and half hours to get here from Belgium! Still, they get to see us twice tomorrow...

We stayed around watched Ringworm and Killing Time. I thought KT were good fun to watch, playing their classic brand of New York hardcore. Most amusing though was the fact they had a couple of friends of theirs on the small stage, just kinda hanging around behind the amps. The guy was a serious Latino hardcore guy, whilst his girlfriend/wife was more of a hard rock looking lady. The guy was totally pumped but the lady just sat there looking bored. The guy at some point guested vocals on one song, and then after the song stood there promoting a film he's apparently acted in. The whole thing was a bit weird.

Ringworm played a little bit too long and I lost interest after about forty minutes, although it started well. Anything after half an hour starts to push the limit, especially with this kind of music. I decided to hang out in the warm New York rain outside the club with our friends.

When Ringworm finished their set we pretty much packed out immediately afterwards. We did pretty well on merch tonight. Considering this show was just a bonus show on what would otherwise would have been a free day, it went well. It's now one thirty am. and I'm sitting here in the dark. It's pissing down with rain and every now and again lightning is flashing across the sky. I'm starving and I'm looking forward to getting back to Philly and having a long overdue shower and then some sleep.

Tomorrow is going to be another long day.

Even later still:

Just got back to the Greghans place. Their new house is really nice. They have a bar in the basement, looks amazing! Unfortunately it's four am. and I need to get some sleep. I'll enjoy that bar tomorrow night though. I'm showering and then heading to bed.

Record of the Week

Moss Icon - Complete Discogrpahy

Podcast

Dagens Ord

Babbla - A Swedish word for talk.

Hello...

This is a blog about life playing in a hardcore band...

...and some other stuff.

I started playing in bands when I was 14. I quit school when I was 18, around the same time I formed Raging Speedhorn. We played our first show in our home town, Corby, England in August 99 and our final show in Yamaguchi, Japan in November 08.

During that time I toured the world, moved to Stockholm, Sweden, got married and got a dog. And then we got a daughter.

These days I play in Victims, Diagnosis? Bastard! and Battle of Santiago. I also mess around with another couple of bands.

I managed a "hip" little bar on Södermalm for a few years but turns out that's a young man's game and I'm not that young anymore... So now I'm back in school, trying my best to make something of myself. Again.

I spend most of my money on records and my free time going to gigs, drinking caffiene, watching football and walking my dog.